Record Heat Claims 5 Lives

America's baking heat wave claimed five lives this week before storms plunged temperatures as much as 40 degrees. The heat was so intense across the Midwest and East that it buckled pavement on a major Michigan interstate, killed power in Detroit, and shut schools across New Jersey, reports MSNBC. Dozens of children and a teacher in a Long Island school were taken to a local hospital for treatment of heat exhaustion. Heat-busting thunderstorms later in the day downed power lines and delayed flights at Chicago's airport.

Scientists have some advice about the heat: Get used to it. Global climate change means we're in for a long string of unusually hot summers. Health experts warn that special precautions should be taken to protect those particularly vulnerable to heat-related disorders, such as the elderly, young children and people suffering from medical conditions, notes CBS. "It's a real public health issue," said one expert. "Between the 1980s and early 2000s, there were more heat-related deaths than deaths from all natural disasters combined." (More United States stories.)